Foolishness to the Greeks

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Transcript of Foolishness to the Greeks

Dichotomy Public Life verse Private Life Foolishness to the Greeks Profile of Western CutureThe Word in the WorldThe Dialogue with Science & PoliticsChapter 6: The Call to the ChurchChapter 1 - "Language & Context"Culture...How the Gospel Crosses CulturalLines without losing its power!!!The Gospel...A Working Definition...Cross-Cultural Communication of the Gospel...The Good News for A Lost Humanity...Western Culture & Its Impact on the Gospel..."The Most Resistant Culture to the Gospel...QuestionHow can we move from the place where we explain the gospel in terms of our modern scientific world-view to the place where we explain our modern scientific world-view from the point of view of the gospel? Ways to reconcile the Bible with Science1) The Bible is accurate and science is wrong.2) The Bible isn't accurate with facts, but is accurate on religious matters3) The Bible is simply a moral handbook that gives us principles to apply to modern life4) The Bible is a history book describing the acts of God. The Hermeneutical CircleThe Hermeneutical Circle belongs inside the churchA herald of the gospel in our culture.1. A recovery and firm grasp of a true doctrine of the last things: Christ's Kingdom fully established on earth at his return.2. A uniquely Christian understanding of freedom.Seven Essentials...Seven Essentials...Seven Essentials...3. A "declericalized" theology.

4. A radical theological critique of the theory and practice of denominationalism.5. Commitment to see our culture from perspective of Christians in other cultures.6. Boldness to proclaim truth outside cultural axioms.7. Overflow of praise.#1. The Communication has to be in the language of the receptor culture. It has to be such that it accepts, at least provisionally, the way of understanding things that is embodied in that language.#2- However, if it is truly the communication of the gospel, it will call radically into question that way of understanding embodied in the language it uses.If it is truly revelation, it will involve contradiction, and call for conversion, for a radical metanoia.#3 - This radical conversion can never be the achievement of any human persuasion, however eloquent. It can only be the work of God.In our pluralist society a person response to the gospel is just that, a persons response to the gospel. Our Culture is set on a relativistic bent, where we all are to examine and define our own truth. There are no universal truths and it is within that the context that the universal message of the gospel must find its way into the human heart...Science versus the BibleCulture is the sum total of ways of living developed by a group of people and handed on from generation to generation. Central to culture is language, which provides the means by which they express their way of perceiving things and coping with them. This would include their visual and musical arts, their technologies, their law, and their social and political organization. Also fundamental to cultural identity is their set of beliefs, experiences, and practices that seek to grasp and express the ultimate nature of things, that which gives shape and meaning to life, is that which claims finally loyalty.